My peaceful routine ended when the institute teachers communicated that there would be a deadly challenge that would involve all the institute students, the term they used was literally deadly challenge. I know that the director of the institute is a person who cares a lot about the quality of the students who graduate from the institute and therefore the few who manage to graduate, and the only other number she cares about is the number of deaths. since she cannot turn the institute into a slaughterhouse.
The death toll can never be so high that the benefits coming from graduates or even dropouts become less valuable to the realm as if many young people die it will not only be a loss of a potential warrior or mage, but that this could create problems for the royal family, as I doubt there is a noble family in the realm that I was glad their younger generation was killed during auditions or with the director's latest deadly ideas. Having some young people who are weak to die can even help to avoid having too much rubbish in a noble family, as no matter how well you try to raise a person there is always a chance that he will be someone who will end up harming the family and killing him with his own hands is not necessarily well regarded among the families of nobles.
I was really scared when the teachers started to explain what this deadly challenge would be, to a person who already creates a normal test and a survival test that already results in the death of a good part of the participants and it is natural for everyone to be afraid when it uses the term deadly challenge to call the next school event as far as I can deduce is something completely new. I have never heard of or read a record of a deadly challenge taking place at the institute that will involve every student.
I just hope they go easy on the students who have just joined as they all have a black core and hardly any experience. During Professor Balder's preliminary explanation that he was trying to use a gentle, tender smile to try to soften the blow, but he failed miserably at the end of the class until there were some people crying.
The challenge will be like this, he and divided and three stages.
The first stage will be carried out in the magic matrix, where a group of ten students chosen by the teachers will be formed to assemble a team that must survive the magic matrix, if there are not at least six students alive at the end of the matrix the group will fail and if someone die because of the actions of another party member the entire party will fail.
The matrix test consists of several challenges of a varied nature that can change during the entire test, if a group is lucky it will have to survive two or three different challenges, but if unlucky the team may have to survive up to five different challenges. They will vary in surviving against monsters, animals, the weather itself, against other intelligent races to be exact it will be custom golems to appear members of the intelligent race and even specific missions in each challenge.
They can move from point A to point B at a certain time, but of course the matrix will try to fail the group along the way, professor Balder even said that there would be some groups that will have to take down hard or defend them during the challenge. In other words, the first test that should be the easiest is already hell in my opinion.
I wasn't very lucky the last time I entered a matrix and that's why I didn't even try to enter again, but now I feel like I'm going to screw myself when I enter the illusory matrix. My group will be made up of idiots or useless people, I'm already seeing myself failing this deadly principal's event, which might be a good thing since I believe the second and third finals will face something even more deadly, maybe failing the first test don't be bad since I'm goanna get a penalty and not get kicked out of the institute.
And participation is mandatory. After class I saw in the hallways a handful of zombies, the students were still in shock which by the way lasted a long time, but when he finished the hallways were taken over by hysterical students.
No violence happened in the corridors, but it's just a little while before someone is trampled in the corridors that turned into a mess, the students were complaining and making plans to avoid having a terrible and painful death in the illusory matrix.
It seems that some of them are sending messages to their families asking for help and others are planning what will be their step when they flee the institute, a good part seems to try to join the kingdom's army as this is one of the only ways to avoid dishonoring their family. Which is a great idea, in my opinion if you don't have the confidence to survive a challenge that is clearly here to put all students to their limit and don't care a bit about the time the students had to strengthen as they are mixing all the students together when forming the teams.
How much I enjoyed my time petting Wulfgar and seeing the desperate students running as if they were already on fire, well my time of peace was hard until I was hit by Hilda. She tried to hug me more as she got a lot of momentum, we ended up rolling and Wulfgar almost turned into a victim being crushed, but I managed to dodge him, but I ended up hurting my arm. But I doubt that Hilda regrets that she is frantic with excitement, it seems like a student who is happy with the possibility of an agonizing and violent death.
"You look a lot more excited than usual; I didn't think you'd be so excited because of the deadly challenge. You're happy because of that right?"
"Clear! Is there any other reason for me to be happy?"
"I don't think so, the only news today was the death sentence for many of the institute's students."
"Bunch of useless, all graduates of the institute are warriors and wizards who are not only powerful and skillful, they are always willing to take on the dangerous and difficult tasks of the realm, the adventurers' guild and to help their families. They are examples of ambitious people who understand that danger and opportunity always go together and this is the only path to greatness."
"Nice speech and I support your vision of your future, but I have to tell you that you should not criticize those who choose to run away from the possibility of death, in fact most who are opting to run away should have a very high chance of dying and it would be a miracle or a lot of luck even for them to survive this challenge, Hilda. I don't think they should feel ashamed and rather see it as a smart decision, not even a kind of honor worth enough for me to kill myself."
"Okay, but you're going to participate aren't you, Ulric?"
"Of course, I just hope I don't get too unlucky and have too many useless people or idiots. There is no way of knowing the quality of the people who will face the challenge, I can only hope that the teachers assemble the groups in a balanced way."
"I think you're worrying too much; most useless ones will run away like you said before, Ulric. The majority that will face the challenge will be the students who have confidence, but what I have doubts about and why the principal decided to take the challenge now is to mix all the students? I thought the challenge would be separated by the year of enrollment, just like the test before."
"Did you expect this challenge?"
"Yes, my mother told me that this year there would be a new test at the institute, it seems that the order comes from the royal family and not one of the director's crazy things, but she must be extremely happy to organize the test all the test ideas are her and with the approval of the royal family."
"And how did your mother end up finding this out?"
"Last month my mother went to the capital, she took part in some meetings with the royal family. When she came back, she said things were going to get very busy in the next few years and Ingredi and I should speed up our cultivation, she even started releasing more resources for both of us to use, which is weird since we both should be earning resources with our own ability and not be earning them."
"But you have to keep it a secret, so don't tell anyone, Ulric."
"I'm a tomb, but did your mother say anything about neighboring countries or about the accumulation of resources because of the conflict between the nobles? Did you hear anything different?"
"I thought we weren't going to have that kind of conversation, Ulric?"
"It was you who brought up the subject before. And I had some ideas about why the conflict between the nobles is going on for so long, even if the death toll is getting so high."
"Avia a lot of trash that had no future, now that most of them are dead to more resources for warriors with ambition and desire not to be a gray or green core warrior for the rest of their lives. There were people over fifty years old but they were still in the gray core, that kind of person and a waste of resources from noble families because there were hundreds of these kind of people in medium-sized families, in large-sized families like mine there were thousands of leeches."
"I'd rather not have that kind of conversation with you, Ulric."